I’m still puzzling over the fact that I, the least religious contributor on NRO (okay, I’ll arm-wrestle ya for it, Andrew) offered the least enthusiastic of all the obituary posts for the late über-atheist Christopher Hitchens.

At last, an explanation, from a friend: “One of the reasons that you were immune to Hitchensolatry, I think, is that you are English and are therefore not susceptible to the American tendency to believe that anyone who speaks fluently with an Oxbridge accent must be right.”

I think my friend nailed it. The fluted tones of the English upper-middle-classes set my teeth on edge. Give me a Texas twang or a Mississippi drawl any time.

But why are Americans such suckers for those fluted tones? Were Lexington and Concord fought in vain?